No, black skin is cool. But ginger Scots I simply can't abide.
Harriet Harman, New Labour's fragrant English rose and horny handed daughter of toil - her aunt is the modest 'Countess of Longford' and she herself was educated at the £20000 a year St. Paul's Girls' School - has shattered her PC image by calling Lib Dem chancer Danny Alexander a "ginger rodent".
There is of course NO biological difference between the 'races' - a black African is exactly the same as a white Gaelic speaking Barrach, namely Homo sapiens. As a species, it doesn't matter whether a person has white skin or brown skin, blue eyes or green eyes, pink lips or red lips, brown hair or 'ginger' hair. We are all the same biologically. 'Race' therefore is an artificial construct. It makes no more sense to discriminate on grounds of skin colour than it does to discriminate on the grounds of a person's cuticle pigment or colour of nostril hair.
Danny Alexander is a bumbling idiot and political opportunist. The fact that he has red hair is irrelevant. Equally, the fact that Harriet Harman is a stuck-up upper-middle-class condescending harridan is irrelevant to the fact that Labour has done little or nothing to eradicate poverty in Scotland and continues to be a petty, conservative and redundant hindrance to the health and wealth of our people - be they black, white, blond or 'ginger'.
This week has seen the publication of the Legatum Prosperity Index which seeks to measure the wealth of nations based on a number of factors and not just GDP. Not surprisingly, wee countries do well with our old friend on the North Atlantic rim Norway coming out on top. Backward Britain doesn't make the top ten, though its position at number 13 does give it some kind of 'respectability'. However, given that Iceland - a country with a population roughly the same as Aberdeen and which Brit Nats tell us is 'bankrupt' - is a slot above.
The small nations of Norway, Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Ireland and Iceland all make it above the 'UK'. We are often told that Scotland 'could not survive' as an independent nation or that we are 'better off' being tied to war-sodden London. Exactly what the benefits are of being 'united' with a corrupt, fat, xenophobic, class-ridden and perpetually warmongering larger neighbour, I do not know. What is obvious is that many small nations - even those without our oil reserves and geography thats perfect for renewable-energy - are not only 'surviving' but thriving.
The proof of this pudding is that the inhabitants of these countries not only live longer than us but are actually happier. Oil money may not necessarily buy health and happiness but neither does the UK's war budget, public service cuts and largesse enjoyed by corrupt or incompetent bankers.
Without regurgitating all the info, some points about Norway do stand out.
Despite a surplus of health, wealth and happiness not to mention a healthier respect for the environment than most nations, only 13% of Norwegians consider themselves religious. Marriage is also less common than in most other countries. More proof perhaps that religion and progress do not often share the same bed.
Despite having harsher winters than Scotland, Norway is 4th in terms of health.
Not surprisingly given the relatively egalitarian use and distribution of Norway's wealth, crime is a very low and people actually feel safe. Maybe the absence of a scaremongering Daily Mail and pack of rabid tabloid wolves is also a factor.
The egalitarian vision of Norwegian society extends to 'remote' rural areas. Those who live in small villages beside the western fjords are equally entitled to good public transport, excellent schools, good provision for the elderly and so on. While I don't have proof of this, I'd imagine that right-wing tabloid whinging about tax payers' money being spent on 'teuchters' or other 'minorities' is rarely heard in Norway. This report seems to state that Norwegians are happy to see their high levels of taxes transformed into excellent public services for all.
Most importantly is 'social capital'. To quote:
An unparalleled 74%* of Norwegians report that other people can be trusted, the highest such rate in the world. In a 2008 survey, a high 43%* of people had donated money within the previous month, and a very high 38%* of people had volunteered. The 46%* of people who had helped a stranger in the same time period is also above the global average. Nearly 94%* of Norwegians say that they have someone they can rely on in times of need. This strong social support is present despite potentially low access to familial and religious support networks: marriage rates are below the global average, at 52%*, and reported religious attendance is just 13%*, the second lowest rate in the world.
No-one is claiming that Norway is some kind of communistic/ anarchist utopia - slaughtering whales aint cool and I'm in two minds about Black Metal. But for anyone interested in the everyday well-being of fellow humans and therefore who seeks to eradicate poverty, - are you listening Unionist Labour? - create meaningful jobs for people not based on war or weapons as well as seeking to protect the environment by ploughing oil wealth into renewables then Scotland should follow Norway's independent lead a.s.a.p.
It was always gonna be like this. If Labour had got in, Alasdair Darling promised that the severity of the cuts would've made Thatcher blush. As it is, we have the great ConDem twins of the bloated Westminster family, Cameron and Clegg. Meanwhile, banks that were bailed out by the state and that are now owned by the state are still paying their chiefs inflated salaries and bonuses.
Who said that capitalism works? The auld Eastern Bloc had shoe mountains apparently, that accrued due to policies that saw people working never mind the demand or use for the product. Bankrupt Britain meanwhile is building up piles of aircraft carriers and other instruments of war - solely to avoid redundancies. The fact that these people could easily be occupied producing technology vital to Scotland's renewable energy future is lost on the London government while the likes of Scottish Labour are too docile or cowardly to back such a move. War is always big business in Great Britannia.
Presently, the French are kicking off big time. If we have any sense, we'll follow. If we're serious about mending the broken economy, lets tax the rich first. These are the fckrs who got us into this mess. Should health workers, teachers, binmen and other public service workers pay the price with their jobs?
The EIS - a good example of a non-politically aligned and powerful union - in conjunction with the STUC have organised a march against the cuts. But this ain't only about education. That much is clear.
Click here for info on Saturday's march in good auld Dùn Eideann. Meanwhile, watch "crypto-communist" film director Ken Loach give Michael Heseltine some lessons on morality and the economy on the recent Newsnight broadcast. Its also worth remembering that socially-democratic and independent Norway don't have a national debt and therefore don't need swinging cuts to balance the books. What is Scotland doing wrong?
Reversing attitudes can be as difficult as reversing language shift. But I fully subscribe to the idea that sees a little progress as better than none at all. Better that than metaphors of rain wearing down mountains over millennia. The corrosive power of rain is a fact but is of no use when talking about a minority language struggling against institutionalised ignorance to reverse centuries of repression and decline.
Therefore, the erection of bilingual English-Gaelic signs at Linlithgow railway station is a battle won in the war against the erections who parade their ignorance and bigotry in the pages of the Daily Mail and readers' comments of the Scotsman.
Some may say that 'Gaelic has no history' in Linlithgow but cannot offer proof of their assertion. Whether or not Gaelic was the 'dominant' language of the entire Scottish mainland is difficult to prove or disprove. What is certain though is that Gaelic speaking populations - be they kings, lairds, monks, migrant farmers or just land working peasants - have left their mark in the form of many placenames all over the Lothians.
Furthermore, as Scots, Gaelic is an inseparable part of our nation's fabric. Our national iconography is almost entirely Gaelic in origin - think of whisky and tartan (it should be noted that the Victorians only adapted an ancient design), the bagpipes, Wallace and Bruce ( who also commanded Gaelic speaking armies whose 'sluagh-ghairm' was 'Albannaich'), the clàrsach, shinty, our personal names from Douglas in the Borders to Mackay in the North and of course our placenames.
Is there any corner of Scotland that does not have a ben, glen, drum, loch, corrie, bal, dun, knock, kyle, strath, camus, inch, ard, auch, ault or craig?
Historical presence is only one reason though for bilingual signs - English is not the 'native' language of most of the world but it can be found in almost every airport. The 'usefulness' of a written or spoken language can be measured in many ways. I'd argue that for every passenger that notices the Gaelic sign and realises that this area has another identity other than 'British' (in the modern sense) the value of these signs increases. Even more so if they then go and research it all.
Even without that value, I'd argue that the handful of taxpaying Gaelic speaking locals are entitled to see their, and Scotland's, mother tongue displayed next to the English wherever possible and practical. After all, for centuries Gaelic speakers received nothing in return for their tax money other than the right to enlist as cannon fodder for the British Army and to have their children beaten for speaking their home and community tongue. Strangely though, Gaelic was found to be very useful when attracting Gaels to the Highland regiments that fought on the front-line of London's many global conflicts.
Meanwhile, I'll continue to use spoken Gaelic whenever possible. I'll get my window on the world's current affairs from BBC Alba, Radio nan Gaidheal and Eorpa. I'll browse with Firefox in Gaelic and surf with Google in the same tongue. My address will read Dùn Eideann instead of Edinburgh. My kids will go to the local Gaelic unit/ school and read Tormod a' Bhocsair's output alongside JK Rowlings. The linguistic melange that is global English is not under threat. My actions add to my knowledge of my environment and therefore enhance my life. More than selfish gain though, it's another stane in the dyke along with the others that are placed there by those who seek to protect the earth's biocultural diversity.
From 'Spoken Here - Travels Among Threatened Languages' - an entertaining and mind-opening journey into the wonder of the worlds' linguistic wealth. Buy here.
* Iain Mac an Tailleir's 5-part collection of Scottish placenames can be downloaded, along with many other language resources/ goireasan cànain by clicking here.
Ex-Crass frontman and Irvine Welsh lookalike Steve Ignorant brings the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to support him on vocal duties at Edinburgh's Liquid Rooms. Its The Last Supper and hundreds of balding paunchy middle-aged punks bounce and scream along with 'screaming babies, shaved women collaborators...'. And it looks like Steve is trying to stifle a grin.
Comparisons with Teddy Boy conventions are easy. This however brings back all kinds of vivid memories of the time - the early 1980s. A dark age that it seems will soon be revisited upon us by the new twin-headed ConDem Thatcher of Cameron-Clegg. In 1984, Crass finished their career by closing their set at a striking miners' benefit gig in Wales with the song 'Do They Owe Us a Living?' and by revising their pacifist views in the face of increasingly brutal state attacks on both striking miners and Stonehenge hippies. At the time, I was a young teenager who travelled to Hearts' games on a supporters bus half full of striking miners from one of Midlothian's pit villages. At a time when local communities were fighting against Thatchers' cops, the black communities in inner-city England were doing the same and everyone from Crass to the BBC film Threads warned of impending nuclear annihilation, the chances were that this stuff would shape your life.
Crass were and still are an institution. They lived the real message of punk - Do It Yourself. They had no or little truck with managers, record companies, promoters etc and relied on themselves and a network of ordinary people to propagate their 'music' and message. As far as punk music goes, this aint Green Day. Yet, despite the absence of nice tunes, major record company and professional distribution networks, their debut album 'Feeding the 5000' went gold. They were more than a band - they were a collective that produced music, artwork, anarchist propaganda, political pranks that saw the Whitehouse, Westminster and Kremlin involved and spawned thousands of imitators. They kicked started the dormant CND movement and gave new energy to issues such as feminism, animal rights and anarchism. In contrast to the simplistic nihilism of other but still relevant punk groups of the time, Crass became seen as po-faced and were followed with an almost religious zeal by some.
This lead to Crass influenced bands berating others for not following the 'true path' of the DIY punk ethic. Chumbawamba threw paint over Joe Strummer because his CBS record label were a subsidiary of an arms dealer. Chumbawamba then signed to EMI - another company with dirty fingers in dirty pies. Chumbawamba did though distribute much of their fee to local community groups. Chumbawamba in turn were criticised by other bands such as Oi Polloi - who in turn neglect the DIY ethic and use Rupert Murdoch's MySpace, though unlike Chumbawamba, have no money to show for it. Should people still care about these baw-hair issues? Or should we just stop pretending to care and accept imperfections, especially in well-intentioned individuals?
Whatever, thousands of middle-aged men and women who may not still clad themselves in black are still living the ideals of Crass. They are still involved in challenging independent music, they are nurses, they are teachers, artists, bicycle engineers, they fight against racism and for diversity, they learn and use minority languages, they open up animal sanctuaries, get involved in community land buy-outs, reject the shackles of religion, involve themselves in community education, write real investigative journalism and much more. The roots may be anarchist, socialist and libertarian but there's more sustainable enterprise come from this movement than anything our bankrupt and corrupt financial institutions and MPs have inspired.
But back to the Last Supper... there was also irony in songs that are more than 30 years old such as 'Banned from the Roxy' still being relevant today. In the week when all of Scotland's main parties presented the London government with their case for retaining the manufacture of aircraft carriers in Scotland, we can only wish that these politicians had Crass' simple - but not incorrect - message drummed into their skulls:
"Defence? Shit, its nothing less than war, and no-one but the government knows what the fuck its for".
Likewise, the anti-war anthems 'Sheep Farming in the Falklands' and 'Mother of a Thousand Dead' could easily apply to today's perma-war adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The influence of Crass is far reaching. Bjork, the Shamen and One Little Indian Records. Artwork and ideals for Tackhead. Banksy can be seen in the pre-Photoshop collages of Crass' graphic artist Gee Voucher. Even smooth crooner Sade was a friend. In recent years both David Beckham and Angelina Jolie have been photographed in their t-shirts. Ironic too as Crass never produced any of their own merchandise though obviously others lined their pockets with the symbol that shows the snake of capitalism eating itself.
There was plenty of merchandise on sale last night though. Crass polos, T-shirts and a new autobiography of Steve himself. Times change though and ideals can mellow without being forgotten. In 'The Story of Crass', Steve talks about one typically vicious tirade that he wrote as an angry idealistic punk rocker in which he talked of how parents fuck you up. Years later, he regretted this after seeing his folks through mature eyes as just two ordinary working class human beings who tried their best. If Steve Ignorant makes some kind of living out of this tour, then good.
It really doesn't befit a modern day economy or a democratic nation that aspires to bridge the gap between rich and poor. But this city was once part of the British Empire and though the crumbs of colonisation fell to a fortunate few most were left to the queue for work, die in industrial accidents, die of disease and live in squalor. In the slums are the grandchildren of those who fled famine, clearance and repression.
The rich of this city can be seen in their favoured nightspots or shopping at some of the numerous designer boutiques in the city centre. On the outskirts though, where the 'stylish' rarely go, tens of thousands are crammed into damp substandard housing. The homeless are visible under bridges or standing at refuges and soup kitchens. Malnutrition is rampant and in some parts of this 'vibrant' city, your average man will be fortunate to live beyond 60. Thousands of city dwellers attach themselves to various religious sects and violence along sectarian lines is commonplace. Crime, corruption and vicious gangland violence are also rife. At one time, the murder rate was higher than in Northern Ireland during the 'troubles'.
A visiting dignitary commented that 'here people live in houses that we wouldn't keep our dogs in'. *
Yet to this city come the Commonwealth Games. In 2014.
Will there be a dividend? Maybe for the few. What is certain is that there has been little if any 'dividend' from Glasgow's supposed status as the 'second city of the empire'. Sure, grand architecture came our way, but for the many, life changed little. Decades of voting Labour MPs into the local council and into the Westminster parliament have achieved little. Flocking to Papal masses and marching to commemorate debauched foreign tyrants like King William of Orange at best distracts us, at worst breeds new misery.
Local politicians and media have their heads in the sand. Some, like journalist Roxanne Sorooshian from Glasgow's Herald newspaper are more offended by Gaelic-speaking schoolkids (?!!) than the poverty around her.
Our nation's dirty laundry is no secret though. Tourism guides can now see beyond the 'Glasgow with style' hype with its focus on designer fashion and culture. And while Glasgow's contribution to our culture is not in doubt, references to the violence, poverty and 'grim hinterland' are a reminder that the Scots Parliament has much to do.
The posited solutions... Independence? A re-connection with our land, language and culture? Community ownership of land? Better education? Eating berries?
There are no magic pills but looking north for inspiration is a start. These possible remedies range from...
the big scale - Norway is a relatively young nation that has used its oil wealth wisely and not sent it to another nation whereby it goes to feed a habit of warmongering and arms accumulation.
to the easily achievable - investing in top quality education where children are encouraged to explore their environment, engage with traditional and practical tasks from gathering food, chopping wood to cooking, embrace languages and develop inquiring minds and constructive attitudes. The new Curriculum for Excellence is a positive step but is there the political will from all parties and funding to see it succeed?
to the ludicrously simple - Finland has dealt with similar issues to ours - alcoholism, depression, short life expectancy - by readopting traditional land-based practices such as gathering fresh fruit.
The alternative option of voting Labour for the status quo is a road to nowhere.
*Sulian Stone Eagle of Nova Scotia's MicMac tribe came some years ago to oppose the plans for a Harris superquarry and lent his support to the Pollock Free State protest at the M77 motorway extension. He visited some of Glasgow's schemes and compared the poverty he witnessed to his own tribe's reservation in Canada. For more info, see Alistair McIntosh's site here.
Historic. Two elderly religious figureheads meet in Edinburgh to discuss their shared German blood and to joke over minute differences in faith. Conversation was stilted at first, but a perusal of the Vatican Family photo album soon loosened the jaws of Herr Ratzinger and Frau Saxe-Coburg.
We are thrilled to march down memory lane with them!
Forgive me father for I have SSinned.
What happens here, stays here, OK Frau?
According to Pius, Adolf's confession was rather long.
Then off we went to the Costas on an Opus Dei package deal to meet cousin Franco.
All we need now are some Islamic heid-the-baws calling for heads to roll because of some slight perceived offence and Scotland will, for a day at least, be back in the dark ages. And all of this because of some folk tales from the ancient Semite traditions.
The Pope and Ian Paisley, despite their public image as mortal enemies, have more in common than one may think. More than just fetish for a Middle-Eastern death cult and others' sins of the flesh.
For a start, both are likely to say, 'these poofs put me off my pint'. Though it may be translated into Biblical patois along the lines of 'sodomites are an abomination.' It is however, hard to understand which blawhard and bigot is tougher on 'sodomy and on the causes of sodomy'. Paisley notoriously launched the ludicrous 'Save Ulster from Sodomy'campaign in 1977. They leafleted outside schools and one Eireannach I know was one of the pupils who received one of the leaflets. He was too young at the time to know what 'sodomy' meant but Paisley and his disciples were determined to thrust it in his face regardless. Likewise Pope Benedict, though his days of 'on the street' anti-gay action were probably in his far-off Hitler Youth days.
It is strange for both of these bigoted hypocrites that other people's private lives are of so much interest to them. Especially when they both have turned a blind eye to instances of their own clergy spilling their 'holy water' into places where the sun don't shine. The child abuse scandals within the Catholic Church are as shameful as they are numerous. But, it seems that auld Paisley has got form on this front too.
To quote the current Irish Central magazine:
I'm sure Paisley is familiar with the bible admonition that "Let him without sin cast the first stone."
Back in 1973 a full-time missionary in Paisley's church, Valerie Shaw, approached Paisley with horrific news. A senior administrator at the Kincora orphanage in Belfast and a close ally of Paisley named William McGrath was abusing boys at the home.
Paisley ignored Shaw and refused to investigate.
In January 1980 the Kincora scandal broke amid allegations, later proven of massive abuse of children at the home.
Paisley knew the ringleader McGrath very well and McGrath had accompanied him to many meetings.
He denied Shaw had told him about McGrath years earlier, but under pressure later admitted he had been told of her suspicions.
This is the man who now proposes to attack the pope on the same issue.
Fortunately, the pilgrims that follow both these dinosaurs are dwindling in number, though for sheer delusional stamina, they'd beat any Ethiopian long-distance athlete. And then browbeat the poor fellow on his choice of god (s).
Should anyone seek any truly fascinating as well as amusing insights into the world of Abrahamic delusion as we know it then I can thoroughly recommend:
The question remains. Will any of Scotland's politicians have the courage to seek to stop all religious worship - brainwashing - in our schools?
(Btw, the Benedict Condom image comes from NQBand the sophisticated montage work is believed to be the work of crack graphic design experts deep within Edinburgh's Lib Dem HQ)
It is bound to be asked.Dè a' Ghàidhlig a th'air Firefox? If you thought that George W Bush was an eejit for saying that 'the problem with the French is that they have no word for entrepreneur' then welcome to the world of the Gael. A mole deep inside Edinburgh's cooncil has catalogued some of the comments from the great monolingual fungus that is your average modern day Brit*. One claimed that Gaelic wasn't fit for the modern age because it had no 'word' for chilli con carne. Another whinged about why the publicity for the Cèilidh Culture festival should be bilingual. 'Don't the Gaels have their own word for cèilidh?' moaned Dùn Eideann cooncil's very ane Dubya.
Anyway, as I tuck into my veggie version of tiolaidh le feoil, I almost choke on my oxymoron to find out that someone has translated Mozilla's Firefox into Gàidhlig. But, before a lynch mob of Tax Payers' Alliance and Daily Mail extremists form an orderly queue outside Salmond's office, it should be pointed out that this appears to be the work of a dedicated volunteer techno-Gael. Good on him. With Google having adopted the ancient Scots' tongue some years ago, it means that Scots can now browse and surf almost entirely in the language that came here with the er... Scots nearly 2000 years ago.
Dè a' Ghàidhlig a th'air hairy skat loving nuns?
Even if only a few hundred bilingual diversity loving zealots like myself use it, it'll still be a step forward for Scotland and her culture. Why? Because there is no fckn value in just being like everyone else. I'm actually quite proud of Scottish Gaelic's contribution to the patchwork of global diversity. It makes the world a more interesting place. Any goddamn dork can just parrot American English.
In reference to the previous posting on Scotland's poverty of ambition, this has to be one instance where someone has got off their arse and done something. Something different, other than shopping at Primark or updating MyScab with inane bullshit. Agus, se siud fàth mo sgeoil.
* I refuse to acknowledge a 'Scot' who decries his/ her nation's oldest indigenous tongue. To me, they might as well be Gerri Halliwell in her Butcher's Apron. Or David Cameron. Whichever is worse.
Admittedly, this is written after the Scottish national football team has plumbed new depths. Though without being too tribal in sporting terms, I must also acknowledge the continued failure of bawbag Britain's latest great white dope in the tennis world, Andy Murray. The main point not being that we rarely win at anything nor even the constant whinging at perceived inequalities on the playing field. No, the problem is that we expect to fail or are scared to conceive success. We are even satisfied to have a primary-school level carving of an Australian Christian wife-beater's interpretation of one of our national heroes exist at the foot of his monument.
Sport though is just that. It's bad enough when the playing field is our very nationhood and culture. There are numerous examples but here are a few that come to mind.
G'day suckers
First up has to be the reluctance - cowardice - of the Unionist parties at Holyrood to countenance a referendum on independence. This is bad enough but the idiocy of some Scots is depressing. It isn't uncommon to hear views such as 'I dinny want to be ruled by an Alex Salmond dictatorship' or words to that effect. Strange that people can't see that an independent Scotland would be ruled by whichever party that won the subsequent elections. Do they think the Republic of Ireland is run by a perpetual Sinn Fein government? Do the Norwegians only have Det norske Arbeiderparti at elections? Or do these amadain even have a concept of 'Norway' as a successful though small and socially democratic independent nation?
And while we're on Norway... Its often amusing to hear 'auld Socialist' types coming across all Daily Mail in defence of the Union. Apparently, an independent Scotland could not survive the current economic crisis. "It just wouldnae work...". I wonder which part of bankrupt Britain's massive £400billion debt could be construed as 'functioning' or 'successful'? Perhaps the saddest thing about all this is not that the Scottish Labour Party or Lib Dems are unwilling to test their pro-Union faith but that they cannot see the opportunity in this for their own parties and for Scotland. Whilst I may happily vote for the SNP or the Greens at the moment because they offer a positive change from a backward Union that has given us little in the way of dividend, I would welcome the chance to vote for a post-Union Scottish Labour Party that had along the way re-adopted some auld and basis principles. The current malaise is exemplified well by Scottish Labour's leader Iain Gray - a man who seems to have made a committment to mediocrity his vocation.
Forward with mediocrity and the war on teeth
If anyone doubts the lack of a Union dividend, they need only go to some of our housing schemes. Decades, indeed centuries, of London rule under different parties has changed little or nothing. Compare it to Norway. I wonder how many young men in Oslo had power drills taken to their skulls by gangsters recently? Or had chisels and knives taken to their groin and face? Maybe we should just compare their longevity and general health and well-being? Or count the number of teeth in your average Norwegian teenagers mouth? In short, just what the fuck is the status quo doing for our poor? Independence aint a magic pill but its a start. And Norway is a pretty good role model to emulate.
Norway too has an egalitarian approach to its two languages - Bokmal and Ny Norsk. Compare this to the usual whinging about Gaelic - most often followed by some vague reference to tax-payers' money and its status as a minority language. Hmmm... I wonder which other minorities should have services denied due to cost? Couldn't we just round all the minorities up into cattle trucks? Fact is, Gaelic is ours and to those who deny that it has a place in Lowland culture, go and learn some and maybe then you'll see the mountain in front of you. Its like a Francist madrileno denying the Arabic influence in Spanish culture but being unable to explain the significance of Al-Andalus. Gaels are tax-payers too and as native Scots are surely entitled to services in our indigenous tongue. This should not be confused with efforts to reverse the erosion of the language - after centuries of repression and neglect.
On this point, its dissapointing to see Edinburgh Council further postpone a decision on whether or not Dùn Eideann should have a stand-alone Gaelic school. Pure fence sitting. Arguments about cost won't wash. Our kids have to be educated. We might as well give them 2 or 3 languages in the process as let their minds' potential rot with mono-lingualism.
Lastly, and on subject of education, is the new 'Curriculum for Excellence'. This has been in the pipeline for years. Some though claim that they aren't prepared for it. Others claim that it is too 'vague'. Thankfully, some understand that it empowers the teacher to give children the necessary tools of enquiry and research. Why just teach children to memorise facts? Why not give them the skills to find out for themselves? I for one certainly welcome the new emphasis on exploration, reasoning and philosophy as hopefully it will lead to a gradual reduction of religious worship in schools. Why teach children to enquire and search for evidence while simultaneously telling them to 'just believe' a bunch of unprovable auld tales with absolutely no basis in logic?
There are other issues. From the suspicion of euthanasia (strange, but the churches are at the forefront of opposition to yet another advance in the understanding of, and steps to alleviate human suffering) to our inability to effectively and sensibly deal with the drugs issue - and this includes our harmful relationship with alcohol and tobacco.
In the next qualifying matches for the Euro Championships, it would be refreshing to hear the players talk up a win against world champions Spain - not only because we've practised and relearned the basics of passing and shooting but because we don't fucking fear success. Simply, if the laws of science say its possible, then go for it.
